The Rise And Fall Of Smurfy Tower/Part 5
Evening came, and the Smurfs that were left in the village, which included Empath, Papa Smurf, Baby Smurf, Tapper, Duncan, Culinary, Biscotti, Gelato, Vino, and the Smurflings, all sat down to dinner together with Polaris Psyche. Their meal was a simple vegetable stew that the kitchen crew had cobbled together under Culinary's direction since Greedy was not there to even make suggestions as to what should be prepared for dinner. Tapper was permitted to pray blessings upon the food before they ate together. "O Lord God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, we thank You for the few Smurfs we have left in our village. Please strengthen our hands and our hearts as we smurf together to enjoy the food that has been prepared from Your gracious bounty. May the food smurf nourishment to our bodies as Your Word smurf to our spirits. We smurf you all the praise and glory in the name of Your only begotten Son Jesus. Amen." "Amen," Empath and Duncan said together before the Smurfs began eating. "Where's Snappy, my little Smurflings?" Papa Smurf asked when he noticed that there was one among the four Smurflings who was missing at the table. "Snappy said that he was going to smurf over to Smurfy Tower and smurf his own smurfominium along with the rest of the grown-up Smurfs, Pappy," Sassette replied. "And that was several hours ago that we heard Snappy smurf that, Papa Smurf," Nat added. "I guess he really wanted to smurf what that kind of life is all about, so he smurfed up everything he had and just left," Slouchy contributed. "Shouldn't you smurf something to smurf him back, Pappy?" Sassette asked. "Not at this time of day, my little Sassette," Papa Smurf answered. "As much as I don't like his disobedience in this matter of not smurfing to Smurfy Tower when he is too young to smurf a place of his own, he will have to smurf out things the hard way when he realizes how much work smurfing his own place will be." "That seems like a rather cruel way to teach a young Smurfling a lesson, even if it is necessary for him to learn it, Papa Smurf," Polaris said. "It is cruel, Polaris, but sometimes important lessons have to be learned that way if they are to have any impact on any Smurf's life, particularly when a Smurf is too young to handle grown-up things," Empath said. "All the same, my heart smurfs out to the young Smurfling, Empath," Tapper said. "At least he will have dozens of other Smurfs that will smurf out for him in case something smurfs wrong." "He'll survive whatever he has to smurf up with in Smurfy Tower, laddie," Duncan said. "He's too stubborn a young Smurfling to just give up and smurf back home." "We'll just have to leave the fate of those Smurfs in the hands of Father Time and Mother Nature, my little Smurfs, and trust that they will be secure until fate directs us to intersmurf on their behalf," Papa Smurf said. ----- By nightfall, most of the Smurfs at Smurfy Tower were getting settled in for the night. Smurfette was trying to get to sleep, struggling to keep as warm as possible due to how cold her smurfominium was becoming, but also dealing with the ambient noise of the other tenants living next door. In particular, there was Harmony playing his horn at a time when most of the Smurfs trying to get to sleep. "How about a little smurf and quiet?" Tuffy cried out, sounding a bit indignant. "I'm trying to sleep here, you know." "Sorry, Tuffy, but I have to practice," Harmony responded. As the horn playing continued, Smurfette tried to bury herself under her covers in the hope that the blankets would muffle the loudness of the horn. But then she started to hear the sound of a hammer banging a nail into the wall right behind her. The nail pierced the wall until finally a hole was formed in it. Smurfette looked up and saw that it was Painter. "Oh, I am so sorry, mademoiselle," Painter said, a bit embarrassed. "The wall is as thin as paper. I was just trying to smurf one of my masteurpiesas on the wall, and I thought that this was a good smurf for one of my works." "Yes, I understand, Painter," Smurfette said, not wishing to get into a conversation with him at that time. She stuffed her pillow in the wall to plug up the hole. "Good night." Smurfette tried to settle back into her bed. "The nerve of some Smurfs," she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes, only to find herself hearing banging coming from her ceiling. "Hey, pipe down, down there," the voice of Greedy called out. "I'm trying to eat." Then Smurfette saw a portion of her ceiling give way as a hole formed in it and Greedy ended up falling from his smurfominium into hers, landing on top of her bed. "Greedy!" she cried out. "Uh, sorry, Smurfette," Greedy said apologetically. "I guess I shouldn't have eaten that last cookie. But since we're now alone together..." "Not on your life, Greedy!" Smurfette stated boldly. "Not unless you're going to smurf a ring on it first." "Hey, I'm willing to smurf that for you," Greedy said. "But since you and Empath aren't going to be smurfing together because you broke up, I just thought..." "Me and Empath break up?" Smurfette asked. "Where did you smurf that bit of news?" "I was just hearing you and Empath smurf that hours ago while I was smurfing up some food together in my kitchen, Smurfette," Greedy answered. "I'm sorry if I smurf on as a bit of a snoop, but you have to admit how fast news travels around here when you can hear what your neighbors are smurfing." "Well, for your information, me and Empath are still friends, even if we have to live in separate smurfs now," Smurfette said. "And I'm not giving up on him even if..." Then suddenly the fold-up bed retracted into the wall, taking both Smurfette and Greedy with it. "This isn't exactly how I want to smurf alone with you in any confined space, Smurfette, but I'll take whatever I can smurf," Greedy managed to say. Smurfette was furious. "Well, that smurfs it!" ----- Things weren't going much better in other parts of Smurfy Tower. Hefty and Brainy were still waiting for someone to come to their rescue from the stalled smurfovator car, and Hefty had to endure hours of his fellow Smurf reading aloud through his collected editions of Quotations of Brainy Smurf, which were grating to his ears and an assault on his sanity. Then at once Brainy had stopped. "That was a lengthy edition that I had smurfed up some time ago, wouldn't you say, Hefty?" Brainy said as he put that book down beside the ones he had finished. "I would surely say, Brainy," Hefty said, heaving a sigh of relief. "Really, is it necessary for us to smurf through all those books to pass the time?" "Hefty, all I see myself doing is educating a mind that is in serious need of some education, and you for certain could use some sound words of wisdom in the situation that we're in," Brainy said. "I can't imagine how you could smurf through years of your existence scorning such a need for intellectual smurfulation in favor of smurfing up your physique." "We all have our strengths, Brainy...you with your educated mind, and me with my physical strength," Hefty said, trying hard not to sound insulting. "Right now, though, I could wish to smurf my physical strength to smurf the both of us out of here, but since I don't know how this smurfovator even works, I'm afraid that I might endanger the both of us in the process." "Fortunately we have all the time in the world to smurf you up on things that you have neglected in your years, Hefty," Brainy said. "After all, a strong body is useless if it doesn't smurf a strong mind with it." "Well, don't you have any easier books for you to smurf from in the collection that you have with you?" Hefty asked. "Hmmmm...easier books, let me see...," Brainy said as he looked through the pile of books that he hadn't yet read from. And then he added, "Ah, here it is...a much earlier edition of Quotations of Brainy Smurf. This one's been a favorite from all the ones that I have written thus far in my storied career as a writer and a philosopher." He opened the book and began to read. "Ahem...'Famous Quotation Number One...'" Hefty covered his ears. "Oh, me and my big smurf!" he groaned. ----- Meanwhile, Architect was racing up and down the stairs, dealing with one thing after another regarding the tenants and the problems they were having in their smurfominiums. During all of this, however, nobody noticed that Snappy was in one of the smurfominiums, trying to be comfortable in a living space that seemed devoid of all the comforts of the tree stump playhouse. He felt himself shivering and was feeling hungry since he hadn't eaten anything in hours since he moved in. "I really wish I hadn't thought of smurfing into a place like this on my own when I'm not ready for it," Snappy complained. Then he heard a knock on the door. "Hello? Is there any Smurf in there?" Snappy was afraid to answer at first. "Uh, who is it?" he managed to say. "It's Dimwitty Smurf," the voice on the other side of the door responded. Snappy sighed with relief, realizing who it was. He opened the door and saw Dimwitty standing outside in the hallway. "What do you want?" Snappy asked. "I'm just wondering if you're having any problems in your smurfominium, Snappy," Dimwitty said. "It smurfs like everything in mine is just breaking apart." "So far I haven't smurfed any problems in mine, except that it's cold," Snappy answered. "Do you need a place to sleep?" "I'm sure that Architect and Handy can smurf up things in the morning, Snappy," Dimwitty said as he looked around the place. "By the way, where's your furniture?" "Oh, uh, I haven't smurfed that part yet when I moved in, Dimwitty," Snappy replied. "I just wanted to smurf the place for myself and see if it's a smurfy enough place for me to smurf in, you know." "Maybe Hefty and Tuffy can help you smurf your things in when they have the chance, Snappy," Dimwitty said. "By the way, Greedy smurfed me some cookies in his kitchen some time ago. You feel hungry?" "Boy, do I?" Snappy said, sounding eager. "Let me smurf what you have left." "I'll be right back to smurf you the leftovers on a plate, Snappy," Dimwitty said before he left. Snappy sighed. "Well, maybe smurfing in a place like this isn't so bad after all," he said to himself. ----- Architect was now racing down the stairs again, feeling the pressure of dealing with the various tenants' complaints. "'It's too hot, Architect', 'It's too cold, Architect'," he grumbled. "All night, fix this, fix that. I swear that if I had to smurf up with one more complaint like that, I'm just going to lose my smurf!" He reached the basement and opened up the furnace so he could put another log in the fireplace to keep the fire burning hot, but just as he was putting another log in, he heard Handy crying out at the top of the staircase. "Architect, it's a disaster!" "So what's new?" Architect responded, sounding disinterested. "Painter was hanging a picture and he hit a pipe, and now there's water everywhere!" Handy explained. Architect groaned, apparently irritated. "Oh no, they're ruining my beautiful smurfominium," he said out of frustration. "Hang on, Handy, I'll help you." He raced up the stairs to follow Handy, but in the process, he left the gate of the furnace open with the log still dangling out, and a spark leaped out of the furnace, igniting another log and setting it aflame. ----- Back inside the smurfovator car, with nobody yet showing up to deal with the problem of Brainy and Hefty being trapped inside together, Hefty felt that his sanity was slipping as he continued to listen to Brainy reading from the edition of Quotations of Brainy Smurf that he was currently on. It was like he was in school as a young Smurfling and he was forced to listen to the teacher drone on and on about lessons that he was supposed to learn, with the feeling that he couldn't escape and that the walls of the school were closing in around him, boxing him in, forcing him to listen to the same monotonous voice over and over and over... "'Quotation Number 7,034...'," Brainy began to read aloud. Finally Hefty spoke. "I...I...I CAN'T SMURF IT ANYMORE!!!" he yelled. Using a dumbbell, he smashed through the window of the smurfovator car door and leaped through it to grab the branch of a tree that was close to Smurfy Tower. "Well, Hefty, if it was that easy, why didn't you smurf us out of here sooner?" Brainy complained. ----- Architect and Handy went out to the porch of their shared penthouse smurfominium together, their shoulders drooping from exhaustion. "What a night!" Architect said. "I'll say," Handy said, sharing the same feeling. "I never dreamed that the smurfominium would be so much work." "I just want to smurf my feet up and enjoy the view, Handy," Architect said as he leaned back upon a lounge chair and closed his eyes. "At least that's one of the perks of smurfing the penthouse, Architect," Handy said. "You think Smurfette might enjoy it up here if she smurfed in with either of us?" "I thought Smurfette was smurfing steady with Empath," Architect said. "Why are you thinking that?" "Gee, I don't know," Handy said. "Just been smurfing rumors around here that Empath and Smurfette aren't going to smurf with each other anymore." "You can't believe everything you hear, Handy," Architect said. "But it would be nice if either of us could be with Smurfette for all time. Just think...she would have the smurfiest life up here in the penthouse." "I would agree," Handy said. "You could see the whole forest from up here, if it weren't for the fact that it's so smoky." "Smoky?" Architect asked, opening his eyes to see that smoke was now rising. He got up and looked to see where the smoke was coming from, and then he realized. "Great Smurfs, the whole smurfominium is on fire!" "We got to inform the village of what's smurfing on here," Handy said, noting the urgency. "But how will anyone in the village know, Handy?" Architect asked. "My smurfomatic remote alarm system that I installed in the village recently, Architect," Handy said, pulling out a small handheld device. "One press of this button and that should smurf an alarm loud enough to wake up all the Smurfs in the village." "Well, what are you waiting for?" Architect said, sounding frantic. "Go ahead and press the button already!" Handy pressed the button. "There! Hopefully it will smurf their attention!" ----- Around the same time, back in the Smurf Village, Tapper and most of the remaining Smurfs were busy relaxing in the tavern, having a final night's drink of soothing beverages to help them fall asleep. The Smurflings were given chamomile tea, although none of them were in the mood for drinking it. "Swimming sea lions, if I never have to smurf anymore time smurfing up chores throughout the entire village, it would be too soon," Sassette said. "You smurfed it, Sassy," Slouchy said. "I would rather things smurf back to the way they were before there was a Smurfy Tower." "Now I know what those grown-up Smurfs had to smurf up with when there was just them and Papa Smurf running things in the village years ago," Nat said. "You'll get used to it, laddies," Duncan said. "Papa Smurf sure had his hands full trying to smurf us all in line when we were your age. He's got enough experience now that he won't have to smurf through the same problem again with you wee ones." "But the thing is, we will persevere through the hard times, my friends," Tapper said. "No matter how many Smurfs are left in the village, we're going to make sure things smurf on and that we don't suffer any problems that the other Smurfs might be smurfing through at this moment." "Maybe Smurfette is right, Tapper," Empath said. "Maybe it would be better for this smurf to move in and live in the same place with her so that this smurf wouldn't be alone." "But you're not alone, as long as your fellow Smurfs and this one are still with you here in the village, Empath," Polaris said. Suddenly the Smurfs could hear a shrill alarm sound throughout the village, piercing even the walls of the tavern. "Great Smurfiny Crickets, what in the blessed name of Eire is smurfing on?" Tapper asked. "It apparently must be an alarm system that Handy had installed in case there was an emergency in the forest and that he needed to draw our attention to respond to, Tapper," Polaris replied. Then suddenly Papa Smurf emerged, wearing a firefighter's helmet and jacket. "Come, my little Smurfs, and get the fire engine ready," he called out. "There is a fire in the forest that we need to smurf to." "A fire in the forest?" the Smurflings said together. Then also suddenly Empath found himself staring blankly as a vision came into his head. "It's Smurfy Tower," he said, sounding concerned. "It's on fire, and our fellow Smurfs need to be rescued." "Then we must respond to it and get our fellow Smurfs out of there," Tapper said, putting down his towel on the counter. "Aye, laddie, we're smurfing with you," Duncan said as they all headed out the door. Smurf to Part 6 Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:The Rise And Fall Of Smurfy Tower chapters